


Here's the Thing About Soulmates

by weekend_conspiracy_theorist



Series: Flarrow Femslash Week 2015 [7]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/F, ronnie raymond doesn't exist for plot reasons, you see in black and white until you touch your soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 02:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5440271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weekend_conspiracy_theorist/pseuds/weekend_conspiracy_theorist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not that Iris West doesn't believe in soulmates. It's that she doesn't think they're a good thing.</p><p>(Written for Flarrow Femslash Week: Day Three)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here's the Thing About Soulmates

Here’s the thing about having a soulmate: it’s crap.

Iris West knows this with one hundred percent certainty because if having a soulmate wasn’t supposed to hurt, then why would she be Barry’s soulmate but Barry not be hers?

She remembers the look on his face when they first touched, the way his entire world had suddenly aligned around her, and she remembers the look on Joe’s face when he realized what had just happened—but only half of it. She remembers the next week of people cooing and treating them differently and showing them pictures, and she remembers being confused about what was happening, envious of the look of wonder on Barry’s face.

She remembers the look on Joe’s face when he realized the rest of what had happened.

She remembers how long it took for Barry to figure it out even with Joe awkwardly attempting to explain, and she’s intimately familiar with the strain that’s been placed on their relationship since. (He loves her, and he’s lovely, and he tries so hard not to let himself resent her for something out of her control—and she loves him just not that way, no matter how hard she’s tried to make herself.)

Iris is happy in her grey-scale world. Colors can’t possibly be that interesting, her fashion sense is impeccable in spite of everything (it’s not that hard; just wear mostly black/white/grey with occasionally a single colored piece), and she’s perfectly happy to date and fall in love with people she’s not soulmates with. Compatibility isn’t all that different from _perfect_ compatibility, when it comes down to it, and that’s what she tells herself right up until the moment Caitlin Snow waltzes into her life.

Caitlin is beautiful and intelligent and funny and charmingly awful at holding her liquor (as Iris found out when Caitlin and Cisco dragged her and Joe out for drinks in an attempt to distract them for an evening), and she’s got the life of one of Iris’s most important people in her steady, capable hands.

“Is he going to be okay?” Iris asks, soft and hurting and all kinds of vulnerable that she doesn’t want to be in front of anyone, yet can’t help being when she’s watched Barry’s heart stop in front of her eyes. She looks at Caitlin, knows her eyes are pleading, and all she wants is for Caitlin to answer, “Yes.”

Even if it’s a lie.

“I don’t know, Iris,” Caitlin says instead, lips twisted with regret, and Iris closes her eyes.

“I know you don’t.” She feels miserable. She can’t imagine a world where Barry Allen doesn’t exist, full of dopey smiles and bad jokes that have perfect timing (even if he never does). Caitlin sets her hand over Iris’s, radiating warmth and calmness and empathy. She sucks in a breath, and Iris opens her eyes to ask what’s wrong.

She’s greeted by a world slightly different than the one she’d closed her eyes on—Barry’s hair is no longer dark grey, her own shirt is a vibrant color that could be yellow or orange or pink from how she’s heard them described, and Caitlin’s eyes—

They’re stunning, this shade of who-knows-what that takes Iris’s breath away, and wide open with shock.

“Do you see—” Caitlin starts, and Iris cuts her off with an emphatic nod.

“Yeah,” she breathes, and then- because she’s running on frayed emotions and sleepless nights and four of the biggest size cup of coffee Jitters sells- she asks, “Can I kiss you?”

“I think that would be nice,” Caitlin says.

Neither of them move.

“I think soulmates are an awful concept,” Iris confides.

“I think I may be able to change your mind on that,” Caitlin counters, and now they’re moving, grabbing each other and kissing frantically, too much teeth to be pleasant but still the best thing Iris has ever felt. She feels giddiness rushing in to replace the clawing anxiety she’s been feeling for the past few months—she knows that will be back, of course, but it’s so _good_ to have it leave her for now.

They break apart, breathing heavily. Caitlin’s hair is mussed, Iris’s impeccable lipstick smeared, and they drop their foreheads together, laughing soundlessly.

Iris presses a kiss to Caitlin’s nose. “I still think soulmates are crap. I’ve wanted to do that since I met you, and it’s not because some cosmic force told me ‘hey, this one. She’s got really pretty eyes, even if you have no idea.’”

“Your eyes are stunning, too.” Caitlin smiles, straightens, and runs a hand through her hair (though the other remains clasped firmly in Iris’s). “And does it really matter how we ended up here, so long as we ended up here?”

“Yes.” Iris huffs. “Because my dad and Bear are going to mock me about this for the rest of my life—prepare to hear a recorded rant about the non-viability of soulmates at the wedding reception, if we get to that point.”

Caitlin shakes her head, laughing. “Ridiculous.”

“Yeah, I know, you haven’t met him yet but Bear is—”

“No, you!” Caitlin pokes Iris’s shoulder. She’s grinning, some mix of disbelief and delight sparkling in her eyes. “You don’t believe in soulmates, and two seconds after finding out about yours, you’re thinking about the _wedding_.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm taking prompts for all of Flarrow Femslash Week! Hit me up at either lisasneeze, my flash sideblog, or my main blog, weekend-conspiracy-theorist


End file.
